November 26, 2024 • 12 mins
In this segment, the guys chat with director of atheltics at UConn, David Benedict, who breaks down the latest news surrounding Husky sports. This includes men's and women's basketball, along with football as the season is approaching the last few games!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
David Benedict and his Weekly Hit with Us. Mister Benedict,
let me start with tell me about the rings that
were given out to the NBA players, you know, like
cling In and Castle and those guys. They all got
their rings with three rings in the box and Donovan
Klingon's teammates actually were grabbing the rings before he even
(00:21):
got to see them so they could wear them.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You know, how much pride do you feel in having
a part in that?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, again, I think we've talked about this previously. I
mean when you boil all of this down, knowing the time,
the effort, the commitment from the coaches and the student
athletes that goes into trying to achieve something like winning
a national championship, and for those individuals that were part
(00:50):
of both championships, so they got a back to back ring,
which I was surprised to hear from Jostin's, who actually
designed and made the ring for us. They said that
was the first time that had ever been done. Now, look,
there's not that many back to back championships, although Gino
did it four times in a row, so I don't
(01:11):
know that he did a special ring for that. Maybe
they should have. But yeah, you're happy for them. It's
something that they're always going to have, hopefully as a
memory of something that you know, not many people get
to experience. So it's great seeing those individual smile. It's
(01:33):
great to see them get their recognition from the people
around them and the respect that they deserve for doing
something that's truly unique and special.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
It doesn't stop basketball capital of the World. We've got
a game tonight Yukon men's basketball against Texas A and
M East Texas A and M Commerce and then tomorrow
Fairleigh Dickinson in the house Yukon women's basketball. But that's
going to be a special night as well as hopefully
we're a win away from Gino becoming the all time
(02:05):
winning as coach in all of college basketball. What is
planned for that festivity or is he sick of this
stuff and like, all right, move on another milestone.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Whatever, Well, you hope you know, all coaches, I'm sure
Gino is locked in and focused on the task at hand,
which is getting his team ready to play and to
continue to make improvements as they start to approach some
(02:33):
bigger games here. But look, I hope that he's able
to really step back and truly appreciate what he and
CD both have accomplished. I mean, just to be at
a place leading a program as a head coach for
forty years now is amazing unto itself. And then the
(02:54):
success that he and MCD and the program has had
under their leadership and gidance over that period of time
is legendary. And you know, I have looked at the
list of individuals that are below him in overall wins
(03:14):
and I just don't I'm not sure if and when
his record will ever be broken. Now. It seems like
records are always going to be broken at some point,
but you know, it's hard to imagine someone doing it
for as long as he's done it, as successful as
he's done it, anytime soon. It's just remarkable. So, look,
(03:36):
he's going to have a ton of former players back,
which I think says a lot about the NCB and
the program for all these individuals to come back and
want to take part in recognizing coach for everything that
he's done for them individually, but for the university.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Talking to Dave Benedict, the University of Connecticut Athletic Director
or weekly segment with mister Benedict, and you know, I
have a stupid question, like I always do. Back when
I was going to Oklahoma State, I had to sign
a letter of intent. Do you still have to do that?
Do they even have like any kind of official meaning
where you'd have to get like if you committed somewhere
(04:18):
and you want to uncommit, is there any kind of
paperwork or is it just like word of mouth?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah? I think you know, the letter of intent is
like everything else right now, there's not a whole lot
of meaning to it because someone could sign a letter
and transfer out before they ever got here. There are
individuals still signing them, but it is it does seem
like most things right now, Zibbs, where the letter of
(04:45):
intent as we remember it is not necessarily the same.
And that's not good or bad. It's just the way
things are evolving in college athletics these days. And so
you know, there was a period of time and the
nuance with the letter of intent. The only thing that
it really protected was what I just said is if
(05:07):
you signed a letter before you got here, you could
not actually transfer. Now that has been kind of stripped away,
so there's really no true I think meaning to the
letter of intent as there was previously, because once you
get on campus you can transfer freely, as we all know.
(05:29):
But you know, it's it's it's almost more symbolic than
it is anything instead.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Okay, I just asked that because I just see them
on social media. That's what it's all about. To Yukon
women's basketball, men's battle. It's like a daily thing. Another person, Oh, okay,
that's cool.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Right. Well, in the in the recent past, there were
kids that were committing but not signing letters because it
was almost one of these things where you could commit,
but if you didn't sign a letter, it meant that
you could change your commitment. You know, we're fortunate that,
(06:05):
you know, kids want to sign those letters. I think
it's again, it's symbolic for us, it's symbolic for them.
But in terms of what it means and what the
overall commitment means, I think has changed quite significantly.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
A new abbreviation we just learned about forty eight hours
or less is MTES. This has been a new hot topic,
especially right around now. I'm looking forward to all the
mtes coming up. We have got Alaska, we've got the
Cayman Islands, and of course we've got the Maui Jim
Maui Invitational that's going to feature our Yukon Huskies men's
basketball team and a lot of great competition, and can't
(06:45):
wait for this. This will be next week. But the
discussion this past couple of days has been whether to
do these or not, Like, if it's financially viable for
these schools to continue to do these mtes. Where are
you at on this discussion? And I know it's early
in the talks and I can't wait for Maui, But
what's the future hold for mtes with Yukon basketball.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, it's a great question, and you know there's been
you know, a lot of conversations internally about you know,
just like Dan talks a lot about roster construction and
how they go about it, and they're very you know,
analytical in how they approach building their roster. I think
the same is going to be true for scheduling. And
(07:32):
it's been that way for a long time. It's just
evolving in a way that now, you know, the financial
and economics of college athletics is different, and so you're
having to look at all aspects of how you can
drive revenue but also potentially reduce expenses, and you know,
(07:55):
going to Maui is you know, it's a great event.
I think for a long time, the winner of the
Maui Classic was always looked at as a potential winner
of the NCAA tournament. I think the winner of this
event has won the tournament many times in the past.
So it suggests a level of competition that you're playing
(08:18):
against and how good the teams are. But I think
as we approach this new evolution of sharing revenue with
student athletes, we're going to have to approach things differently,
and that could curtail your desire to travel, you know,
a very long way which winds up being very expensive.
(08:41):
And you know, I'm not going to suggest that our
kids don't have a good time when they go to
these events, but they're primarily going there to play basketball,
and there's not a lot of free time that they
have to go out and really enjoy a place like Mali.
And so the question is what are you doing it for. Obviously,
(09:03):
the competition is great. If you can find an alternative
way to get great competition on your schedule that doesn't
cost you a ton of money, it just means that
you have the ability to potentially put yourself in a
position to share more with your student athletes. And every
athletic department across the country is having these types of
(09:25):
conversations that may not just be around mts, but it's
around all aspects of how a business is being run.
And so this is just one of those things that
we're going to evaluate and potentially make some changes.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yukon women have moved on in soccer. They beat Rutgers
two to one. They now play Stanford this Friday. Got
to be excited for the Yukon women in some of
these other sports we talked about this last week. How
excited are you for the soccer program?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Very I mean, you know, let's start with Margaretriguez. I mean,
she's she's a former player herself, and so you know,
getting over that hump and qualifying for the NCAA tournament
is one thing, but going there and winning the game
and doing it on the road against the higher seed
(10:18):
is a great step. And so again, super happy for
this program, Super happy for coach and her student athletes.
They've they've they've gone on a great run and you know,
Stanford will be a really really stiff test for us,
but our kids are playing really well and we've beaten
(10:38):
some of the best teams in the country.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Huge win for them. Huge win on Friday for men's
hockey beating BC. That was big for everyone that was
there at It's Kino Family Ice Forum. But my man,
Saturday Saturday Saturday noon kickoff, we had a bye week.
I'm boiling over. I need some football in my system.
Yukon taken on sarahcuse another one of these ACC punks.
(11:02):
What is this going to mean If Yukon football can
get this win. I know it's going to boost their
bull status, but I'm trying to be one of these
A SEC teams. Man, What is this going to mean?
If they can go out there, go up there on
the road and get this win, well.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
It'll it'll mean a lot. It'll obviously mean a lot
to our program, our coaches, our student athletes. But it
you know, unfortunately or fortunately, we're in the position to
be able to play in these games. We've had three
of them already this year, two of them. I think
the margin between the two games against Duke and Wake
(11:38):
first was a totally eight points. And so look, we
want to go compete. We want to give ourselves a
chance to win the football game. And I don't think
that there's any question that Coach Mora that is his
only approach and mentality is to go up there and
with a football game and look, if we play great
(11:58):
and have an exceptional outing where where the guys really
are able to execute, then I think we'll have a
chance to win. But we will have to play really,
really well. And I know Coach has probably talked about
this and mentioned it. You know, we've got to We've
got to get out in the early part of the
(12:19):
game a little bit better than we have the last
few games offensively. Our defense is obviously really helped us
over the course of the season keep us in position
to have a chance to win football games. But we
to beat a team like Syracuse who's having a very
good season as well, We're going to need to come
(12:41):
out and put some points of the border early.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
David Venedet, always a pleasure to have you on the show, sir.
Congratulations to you and your lovely wife on your anniversary.
Thank you so much for give us a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Thank you guys, Go Huskies.
David Benedict and his Weekly Hit with Us. Mister Benedict,
let me start with tell me about the rings that
were given out to the NBA players, you know, like
cling In and Castle and those guys. They all got
their rings with three rings in the box and Donovan
Klingon's teammates actually were grabbing the rings before he even
(00:21):
got to see them so they could wear them.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You know, how much pride do you feel in having
a part in that?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, again, I think we've talked about this previously. I
mean when you boil all of this down, knowing the time,
the effort, the commitment from the coaches and the student
athletes that goes into trying to achieve something like winning
a national championship, and for those individuals that were part
(00:50):
of both championships, so they got a back to back ring,
which I was surprised to hear from Jostin's, who actually
designed and made the ring for us. They said that
was the first time that had ever been done. Now, look,
there's not that many back to back championships, although Gino
did it four times in a row, so I don't
(01:11):
know that he did a special ring for that. Maybe
they should have. But yeah, you're happy for them. It's
something that they're always going to have, hopefully as a
memory of something that you know, not many people get
to experience. So it's great seeing those individual smile. It's
(01:33):
great to see them get their recognition from the people
around them and the respect that they deserve for doing
something that's truly unique and special.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
It doesn't stop basketball capital of the World. We've got
a game tonight Yukon men's basketball against Texas A and
M East Texas A and M Commerce and then tomorrow
Fairleigh Dickinson in the house Yukon women's basketball. But that's
going to be a special night as well as hopefully
we're a win away from Gino becoming the all time
(02:05):
winning as coach in all of college basketball. What is
planned for that festivity or is he sick of this
stuff and like, all right, move on another milestone.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Whatever, Well, you hope you know, all coaches, I'm sure
Gino is locked in and focused on the task at hand,
which is getting his team ready to play and to
continue to make improvements as they start to approach some
(02:33):
bigger games here. But look, I hope that he's able
to really step back and truly appreciate what he and
CD both have accomplished. I mean, just to be at
a place leading a program as a head coach for
forty years now is amazing unto itself. And then the
(02:54):
success that he and MCD and the program has had
under their leadership and gidance over that period of time
is legendary. And you know, I have looked at the
list of individuals that are below him in overall wins
(03:14):
and I just don't I'm not sure if and when
his record will ever be broken. Now. It seems like
records are always going to be broken at some point,
but you know, it's hard to imagine someone doing it
for as long as he's done it, as successful as
he's done it, anytime soon. It's just remarkable. So, look,
(03:36):
he's going to have a ton of former players back,
which I think says a lot about the NCB and
the program for all these individuals to come back and
want to take part in recognizing coach for everything that
he's done for them individually, but for the university.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Talking to Dave Benedict, the University of Connecticut Athletic Director
or weekly segment with mister Benedict, and you know, I
have a stupid question, like I always do. Back when
I was going to Oklahoma State, I had to sign
a letter of intent. Do you still have to do that?
Do they even have like any kind of official meaning
where you'd have to get like if you committed somewhere
(04:18):
and you want to uncommit, is there any kind of
paperwork or is it just like word of mouth?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah? I think you know, the letter of intent is
like everything else right now, there's not a whole lot
of meaning to it because someone could sign a letter
and transfer out before they ever got here. There are
individuals still signing them, but it is it does seem
like most things right now, Zibbs, where the letter of
(04:45):
intent as we remember it is not necessarily the same.
And that's not good or bad. It's just the way
things are evolving in college athletics these days. And so
you know, there was a period of time and the
nuance with the letter of intent. The only thing that
it really protected was what I just said is if
(05:07):
you signed a letter before you got here, you could
not actually transfer. Now that has been kind of stripped away,
so there's really no true I think meaning to the
letter of intent as there was previously, because once you
get on campus you can transfer freely, as we all know.
(05:29):
But you know, it's it's it's almost more symbolic than
it is anything instead.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Okay, I just asked that because I just see them
on social media. That's what it's all about. To Yukon
women's basketball, men's battle. It's like a daily thing. Another person, Oh, okay,
that's cool.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Right. Well, in the in the recent past, there were
kids that were committing but not signing letters because it
was almost one of these things where you could commit,
but if you didn't sign a letter, it meant that
you could change your commitment. You know, we're fortunate that,
(06:05):
you know, kids want to sign those letters. I think
it's again, it's symbolic for us, it's symbolic for them.
But in terms of what it means and what the
overall commitment means, I think has changed quite significantly.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
A new abbreviation we just learned about forty eight hours
or less is MTES. This has been a new hot topic,
especially right around now. I'm looking forward to all the
mtes coming up. We have got Alaska, we've got the
Cayman Islands, and of course we've got the Maui Jim
Maui Invitational that's going to feature our Yukon Huskies men's
basketball team and a lot of great competition, and can't
(06:45):
wait for this. This will be next week. But the
discussion this past couple of days has been whether to
do these or not, Like, if it's financially viable for
these schools to continue to do these mtes. Where are
you at on this discussion? And I know it's early
in the talks and I can't wait for Maui, But
what's the future hold for mtes with Yukon basketball.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, it's a great question, and you know there's been
you know, a lot of conversations internally about you know,
just like Dan talks a lot about roster construction and
how they go about it, and they're very you know,
analytical in how they approach building their roster. I think
the same is going to be true for scheduling. And
(07:32):
it's been that way for a long time. It's just
evolving in a way that now, you know, the financial
and economics of college athletics is different, and so you're
having to look at all aspects of how you can
drive revenue but also potentially reduce expenses, and you know,
(07:55):
going to Maui is you know, it's a great event.
I think for a long time, the winner of the
Maui Classic was always looked at as a potential winner
of the NCAA tournament. I think the winner of this
event has won the tournament many times in the past.
So it suggests a level of competition that you're playing
(08:18):
against and how good the teams are. But I think
as we approach this new evolution of sharing revenue with
student athletes, we're going to have to approach things differently,
and that could curtail your desire to travel, you know,
a very long way which winds up being very expensive.
(08:41):
And you know, I'm not going to suggest that our
kids don't have a good time when they go to
these events, but they're primarily going there to play basketball,
and there's not a lot of free time that they
have to go out and really enjoy a place like Mali.
And so the question is what are you doing it for. Obviously,
(09:03):
the competition is great. If you can find an alternative
way to get great competition on your schedule that doesn't
cost you a ton of money, it just means that
you have the ability to potentially put yourself in a
position to share more with your student athletes. And every
athletic department across the country is having these types of
(09:25):
conversations that may not just be around mts, but it's
around all aspects of how a business is being run.
And so this is just one of those things that
we're going to evaluate and potentially make some changes.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yukon women have moved on in soccer. They beat Rutgers
two to one. They now play Stanford this Friday. Got
to be excited for the Yukon women in some of
these other sports we talked about this last week. How
excited are you for the soccer program?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Very I mean, you know, let's start with Margaretriguez. I mean,
she's she's a former player herself, and so you know,
getting over that hump and qualifying for the NCAA tournament
is one thing, but going there and winning the game
and doing it on the road against the higher seed
(10:18):
is a great step. And so again, super happy for
this program, Super happy for coach and her student athletes.
They've they've they've gone on a great run and you know,
Stanford will be a really really stiff test for us,
but our kids are playing really well and we've beaten
(10:38):
some of the best teams in the country.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Huge win for them. Huge win on Friday for men's
hockey beating BC. That was big for everyone that was
there at It's Kino Family Ice Forum. But my man,
Saturday Saturday Saturday noon kickoff, we had a bye week.
I'm boiling over. I need some football in my system.
Yukon taken on sarahcuse another one of these ACC punks.
(11:02):
What is this going to mean If Yukon football can
get this win. I know it's going to boost their
bull status, but I'm trying to be one of these
A SEC teams. Man, What is this going to mean?
If they can go out there, go up there on
the road and get this win, well.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
It'll it'll mean a lot. It'll obviously mean a lot
to our program, our coaches, our student athletes. But it
you know, unfortunately or fortunately, we're in the position to
be able to play in these games. We've had three
of them already this year, two of them. I think
the margin between the two games against Duke and Wake
(11:38):
first was a totally eight points. And so look, we
want to go compete. We want to give ourselves a
chance to win the football game. And I don't think
that there's any question that Coach Mora that is his
only approach and mentality is to go up there and
with a football game and look, if we play great
(11:58):
and have an exceptional outing where where the guys really
are able to execute, then I think we'll have a
chance to win. But we will have to play really,
really well. And I know Coach has probably talked about
this and mentioned it. You know, we've got to We've
got to get out in the early part of the
(12:19):
game a little bit better than we have the last
few games offensively. Our defense is obviously really helped us
over the course of the season keep us in position
to have a chance to win football games. But we
to beat a team like Syracuse who's having a very
good season as well, We're going to need to come
(12:41):
out and put some points of the border early.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
David Venedet, always a pleasure to have you on the show, sir.
Congratulations to you and your lovely wife on your anniversary.
Thank you so much for give us a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Thank you guys, Go Huskies.
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